Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Israel Accuses Hamas of Putting Ceasefire Deal at Risk
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. You're listening to the
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- 0:24Speaker 2: Alex Steel here alongside Mike Reagan Wolswheeny is off today.
- 0:28Speaker 2: This is Bloomberg Intelligence Radio. We bring you all the
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- 0:43Speaker 2: reporters all across the globe to really delve into the
- 0:46Speaker 2: key stories of our time. And for that we go
- 0:49Speaker 2: to Ethan Broner, Bloomberg News Israel Bureau Chief, and he
- 0:53Speaker 2: joins us. Now, where are these ceasefire talks at the moment?
- 0:58Speaker 2: The reports are coming in fast and furious, Ethan, of
- 1:01Speaker 2: issues that keep bubbling up.
- 1:04Speaker 3: Well, Alex, if we could answer that question, it's a
- 1:07Speaker 3: great question. Look, we don't know. For at least a
- 1:10Speaker 3: dozen hours. The Israelis have been saying that what the
- 1:15Speaker 3: so called finished deal was suddenly reopened, that Hamas was
- 1:19Speaker 3: insisting on certain aspects of demands with regard to which
- 1:23Speaker 3: prisoners would be released that Israel had not agreed to
- 1:26Speaker 3: that was not part of the original deal. And they're
- 1:29Speaker 3: still saying that. The senior officials justin a half an
- 1:33Speaker 3: hour ago issued a similar statement that Haramas is making
- 1:36Speaker 3: demands that Israel will never meet and therefore, so far
- 1:40Speaker 3: there's no cabinet called to approve this deal and the
- 1:43Speaker 3: deal is on hold.
- 1:45Speaker 4: I wonder if you could describe to us what it's
- 1:47Speaker 4: like on the ground there as this process unfolds. I mean,
- 1:51Speaker 4: is there actually peace and quiet right now or is
- 1:53Speaker 4: there still conflict brewing? Is there still fighting going on?
- 1:57Speaker 3: So there's an enormous amount of fighting going on. Israel
- 2:00Speaker 3: has stepped up its military activity in Gaza today and
- 2:05Speaker 3: in fact, at one point Hamas issued a statement saying
- 2:09Speaker 3: that one of the female hostages that they're holding that
- 2:14Speaker 3: where she was being held in a place that had
- 2:15Speaker 3: been hit by the Israelis. So you know, whether that's
- 2:18Speaker 3: really true or not, we don't know, but there's there's
- 2:20Speaker 3: plenty of that going on as well, so it's not
- 2:24Speaker 3: we're not does not feel like we're on the verge
- 2:26Speaker 3: of a real deal. If you forced me to guess,
- 2:29Speaker 3: I would guess that they will solve their problems in
- 2:32Speaker 3: the Katar and that by tonight or tomorrow there will
- 2:35Speaker 3: be a cabinet approval of this deal. But I'm really
- 2:38Speaker 3: not sure.
- 2:40Speaker 2: What is it like in Benjaminta who's cabinet right now?
- 2:44Speaker 3: Well, I mean the cabinet is going to approve the deal.
- 2:47Speaker 3: He does have too far right cabinet members who are
- 2:52Speaker 3: vehemently opposed to it, one of whom has said he
- 2:54Speaker 3: would walk out of the government if it passed, the
- 2:57Speaker 3: other of whom has said, well, I would give it
- 2:59Speaker 3: the first six week tranch that we've talked about, and
- 3:03Speaker 3: if you don't promise to go back to fighting after that,
- 3:06Speaker 3: then I'll walk. So I think we'll have to see,
- 3:09Speaker 3: because it maybe depends on what fighting means and you
- 3:12Speaker 3: know what will happen. But I think for the moment,
- 3:14Speaker 3: the cabinet is secure if they can solve the problem
- 3:18Speaker 3: that they say is going on in Katar right now.
- 3:22Speaker 4: An Ethan, what sort of how do you sort of
- 3:24Speaker 4: handicap the potential success of this ceasefire deal, do you
- 3:29Speaker 4: suspect that both sides really will agree to it? I mean,
- 3:32Speaker 4: we've seen so many times in the past where we
- 3:34Speaker 4: thought we had accords that that sort of fell through.
- 3:36Speaker 4: What what do you expect from this one?
- 3:39Speaker 3: I expect failure, Yeah, and what does failure look like?
- 3:44Speaker 2: Smiles.
- 3:45Speaker 3: Failure will mean more of the same. It'll mean that
- 3:47Speaker 3: the Israel will not remove its troops from Gaza. It
- 3:50Speaker 3: means that they will continue to be fighting, that the
- 3:52Speaker 3: hostages will be held. Now, of course, then we'll have
- 3:55Speaker 3: a new administration in the United States, which in theory
- 3:58Speaker 3: is more hawkish and or in line with that, and
- 4:01Speaker 3: we'll have to see what that means in terms of
- 4:04Speaker 3: what kind of more severe fighting against Hamas is to
- 4:09Speaker 3: be to expect, but that is my instinct.
- 4:13Speaker 2: Do we have an idea of what Israel is going
- 4:15Speaker 2: to be or Benjamin and Yah who will be talking
- 4:17Speaker 2: to President Trump about come basically Tuesday.
- 4:23Speaker 3: Look, I mean, I think that the few things that
- 4:25Speaker 3: the most immediate on their agenda are re stocking Israel's
- 4:30Speaker 3: weapons and so on in terms of its ability to fight.
- 4:33Speaker 3: And then the biggest question is what to do about
- 4:36Speaker 3: Iran and its nuclear program, So I think those are
- 4:39Speaker 3: the things that are going to preoccupy them.
- 4:41Speaker 4: Does the hawkishness hawkishness on the part of Trump, do
- 4:45Speaker 4: you think that will have any impact on how Hamas
- 4:49Speaker 4: views this whole situation. Could it actually scare them into
- 4:53Speaker 4: compliance or.
- 4:54Speaker 3: Do the That was the idea, I mean, that was
- 4:56Speaker 3: the that was sort of the argument until last night,
- 4:59Speaker 3: and it may still. I think that Hamas is in
- 5:01Speaker 3: a much more vulnerable position than it was six months ago,
- 5:04Speaker 3: not just because of President Trump, but because of having
- 5:08Speaker 3: lost its leaders and the fact that his BELA is
- 5:11Speaker 3: no longer able to help it. The Syrian regime has collapsed,
- 5:14Speaker 3: and that Iran is stripped of a lot of its
- 5:17Speaker 3: air defense systems, so it's alone. It doesn't have the
- 5:20Speaker 3: support system that thought it would have, so in theory,
- 5:22Speaker 3: it got more involved with negotiating this deal. But you know,
- 5:27Speaker 3: it's also you know, a fairly extremist organization that in
- 5:32Speaker 3: theory is not afraid of death, and so it's very
- 5:35Speaker 3: hard to know.
- 5:36Speaker 2: All right, Well, we appreciate all of your insight. Thank
- 5:39Speaker 2: you so much. Ethan Browner. He's joining us at Bloomberg's
- 5:42Speaker 2: Israel Bureau chief.
- 5:44Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch the program
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- 5:59Speaker 1: Just say play. Bloomberg eleven thirty got.
- 6:03Speaker 2: Some economic data today. It looks like we are still
- 6:05Speaker 2: spending not too shabby for December, and we've got some
- 6:09Speaker 2: initial jobless claims as well. Luckily Michael McKee, Bloomerg International
- 6:12Speaker 2: Economics and Policy correspondent, is joining us. What's my takeaway
- 6:16Speaker 2: from jobless in retail sales?
- 6:18Speaker 5: Pretty good day.
- 6:19Speaker 3: Okay.
- 6:20Speaker 5: You know, Joe Biden's economic victory tour continues. He's getting
- 6:24Speaker 5: good data as he prepares to leave office. The retail
- 6:27Speaker 5: sales numbers disappointing on the headline, but that was largely
- 6:32Speaker 5: due to things that don't go into the GDP number.
- 6:34Speaker 5: We like to look at the retail sales control group,
- 6:37Speaker 5: which is the stuff that actually gets counted in GDP,
- 6:42Speaker 5: and that was up seven tenths, which is a lot
- 6:44Speaker 5: more than last month four tenth and a lot more
- 6:47Speaker 5: than the four tenth that was forecast. So that was
- 6:51Speaker 5: the good news. The jobless claims figures were up, but
- 6:53Speaker 5: that was largely in part because of bad weather in
- 6:56Speaker 5: the Midwest, but also in part because of the California fires.
- 6:59Speaker 5: It appears California jobless claims what more than thirteen thousand
- 7:03Speaker 5: during the week. That's unadjusted, so it'll show up as
- 7:08Speaker 5: one of the biggest movers next week. But when you
- 7:10Speaker 5: look down into the numbers, you can see that this
- 7:12Speaker 5: is already having an impact, and I think that's going
- 7:14Speaker 5: to be a continuing story. We're going to be looking
- 7:17Speaker 5: at most of the data to see what the California effect,
- 7:22Speaker 5: the Los Angeles effect is.
- 7:24Speaker 4: Like, I feel like there have been so many predictions
- 7:26Speaker 4: of doom and gloom for the consumer with higher inflation,
- 7:29Speaker 4: higher interest rates. Is it surprising to you to see
- 7:33Speaker 4: this much resilience or is it just a matter of, Hey,
- 7:35Speaker 4: the job market remains strong. Of course, consumers are going
- 7:38Speaker 4: to continue to spend.
- 7:40Speaker 5: That is the case. I am a little surprised in
- 7:43Speaker 5: the sense that Americans got very used to low interest
- 7:47Speaker 5: rates and got very used to discount pricing all the
- 7:51Speaker 5: time during the two twenty tens, and so the fact
- 7:56Speaker 5: that they're willing to overlook where interest rates are now
- 7:59Speaker 5: is kind of interesting now that people at the lower
- 8:02Speaker 5: ends of the economic spectrum are struggling now at least
- 8:06Speaker 5: inflation has come down, but they don't have the money
- 8:10Speaker 5: that other people do, so this is driven more by
- 8:13Speaker 5: the upper middle and upper classes. But it's still kind
- 8:17Speaker 5: of interesting given that we've sort of flipped from the
- 8:22Speaker 5: old normal to the new normal and back to the
- 8:24Speaker 5: old normal.
- 8:25Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 8:25Speaker 4: I think one of the wildest headlines I saw the
- 8:27Speaker 4: morning was surprisingly strong sales of Cartier jewelry, So I
- 8:31Speaker 4: guess that speaks to that high end.
- 8:33Speaker 5: I guess you talk Alex about that in no way whatsoever.
- 8:38Speaker 2: Tom Kum is just expounding on that, but to the
- 8:40Speaker 2: point that the high end consumer still do particularly.
- 8:44Speaker 5: No, we've seen that, and there was a story today
- 8:47Speaker 5: on how European luxury brands are all launching new products
- 8:52Speaker 5: and doing well even though the economy in Europe is
- 8:54Speaker 5: much worse than ours in.
- 8:56Speaker 2: China's still a little bit TVD on that as well.
- 8:59Speaker 6: What's the next set up? What you care about?
- 9:02Speaker 2: Give me the NERD.
- 9:03Speaker 5: PCE is going to be the one that people care
- 9:05Speaker 5: about because it will influence the FAED, although it's not
- 9:10Speaker 5: going to have any influence on this month, but it
- 9:14Speaker 5: could come in about as forecast. Yesterday we were thinking
- 9:17Speaker 5: of come in a little light, but then international airfares
- 9:20Speaker 5: came in high in the month of December, so that
- 9:24Speaker 5: might push it up. But at this point we're all
- 9:27Speaker 5: kind of looking to March, and the data point for
- 9:30Speaker 5: March comes in on Monday.
- 9:34Speaker 2: Well, speaking of Chris Waller is on CNBC right now
- 9:37Speaker 2: and he's saying that he doesn't think March can be
- 9:39Speaker 2: ruled out for a.
- 9:40Speaker 5: Rate cut, So to give the devil there, we could
- 9:42Speaker 5: get strong enough growth and it's just going to depend
- 9:45Speaker 5: on how the markets react to whatever Belald Trump does.
- 9:48Speaker 2: All right, Mike, thanks a lot. Mike McKee, Bloomerg International
- 9:51Speaker 2: Economics and Policy Correspondent.
- 9:55Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
- 9:58Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am on Apple, Cockley and Android Otto
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- 10:05Speaker 1: get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
- 10:09Speaker 2: So the other side of the coin is what's happening
- 10:11Speaker 2: with big banks. I mean, these numbers were just tremendous.
- 10:14Speaker 2: We've got all of them in Bank of America Morgan
- 10:15Speaker 2: Stanley today. I mean Morgan Stanley profit doubling as the
- 10:19Speaker 2: company takes some big stock trading beats. Here, let's get
- 10:22Speaker 2: more on this with Allison and Williams. She's a Bloomberg
- 10:25Speaker 2: Intelligence senior analyst for global banks and asset managers. Okay,
- 10:28Speaker 2: what's my word to describe the big banks over the
- 10:31Speaker 2: last forty eight hours? Green green, Okay, meaning they're making a.
- 10:36Speaker 6: Bowl, not green, climate friendly. That's that's the whole other story.
- 10:42Speaker 6: But I would say, you know, I mean, first of all,
- 10:45Speaker 6: the trading members, wow, especially for the leaders. You know,
- 10:50Speaker 6: Morgan Stanley really coming with that fifty percent growth and
- 10:54Speaker 6: equities trading, but you know, Morgan Stanley, gold and JP
- 10:57Speaker 6: Morgan really strength. I mean big Bag also had good numbers,
- 11:01Speaker 6: but especially strong there. The banking fee recovery is what
- 11:05Speaker 6: people are focusing on, you know, not as strong, but
- 11:09Speaker 6: really positive comments around the pipeline. Morgan Stanley's saying today
- 11:13Speaker 6: IPO pipeline like best in several years, or to that effect.
- 11:17Speaker 6: Golden Sachs also talking about strength and the equities pipeline
- 11:20Speaker 6: and the fees there really strong. Deaf fees actually disappointing
- 11:24Speaker 6: a little bit, but they've been so they've been sort
- 11:26Speaker 6: of carrying the ball for the banking business for a while,
- 11:29Speaker 6: so IPO fees. I think really the strength and the
- 11:32Speaker 6: banking pipelines trading good. But at the core for the
- 11:36Speaker 6: banks is better net interest income, better net interest income
- 11:40Speaker 6: in the quarter, better net interest income guidance, a cost
- 11:43Speaker 6: guidance better than feared. For Wells Fargo and City Group
- 11:46Speaker 6: in particular. That's a key positive back of America talking
- 11:50Speaker 6: about operating leverage and credit credit solid. We haven't talked
- 11:55Speaker 6: a lot about credit and generally that's a good sign
- 11:57Speaker 6: signed that things are good that there's not much talk about.
- 12:00Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 12:00Speaker 4: Also, I wonder if those high trading revenues is that
- 12:04Speaker 4: something typically we see around presidential election. I mean that
- 12:07Speaker 4: I'm assuming that creates a lot of volume that is
- 12:10Speaker 4: sort of not indicative of what the rest of the
- 12:13Speaker 4: year is like.
- 12:13Speaker 6: Yeah, I think, I mean especially for you know, this election, right,
- 12:18Speaker 6: so anything that is driving people to reposition their portfolios.
- 12:22Speaker 6: So the volatility numbers, if you look at headline volatility,
- 12:25Speaker 6: it's probably not you know, especially for last year, the
- 12:29Speaker 6: numbers have been kind of disappointing. But I think just
- 12:32Speaker 6: the fact that underneath the service there are a lot
- 12:34Speaker 6: of shifts in trades and portfolios, so that has that's
- 12:39Speaker 6: been helpful. But the strength in equities trading is the
- 12:42Speaker 6: prime brokerage business. Record quarter at Morgan Stanley. Think about
- 12:47Speaker 6: hedge funds, you know they've been hitting a new record
- 12:49Speaker 6: and balances. You know, we'll see when the numbers come
- 12:52Speaker 6: out shortly if they hit another record. But global equities
- 12:56Speaker 6: the market cap record high in December, right, so prime
- 12:59Speaker 6: broke bridge, the trades, the balances are you know, they're
- 13:04Speaker 6: they're paying the prime brokers on those balances. Goldman Morgan Stanley,
- 13:11Speaker 6: JP Morgan, the ones that I said had the blow
- 13:13Speaker 6: out trading, they're the leaders in that business.
- 13:15Speaker 5: Right.
- 13:17Speaker 6: We know that a lot of the hedge funds had
- 13:19Speaker 6: a good quarter. So to your point when you're talking
- 13:21Speaker 6: about the election, especially some of the macro bets paying off,
- 13:26Speaker 6: that really helped the hedge funds, help the prime brokerage.
- 13:28Speaker 2: Which is just in stark contrast to like the P
- 13:30Speaker 2: and C and US Bank Corp numbers that we got
- 13:33Speaker 2: out today, right Like they're you know, large regional banks
- 13:36Speaker 2: and their net interest income growth was a bit muted
- 13:40Speaker 2: on that loan demand. So if you strip out all
- 13:43Speaker 2: that trading that you guys are talking about, how are.
- 13:45Speaker 6: Things and that really I mean the capital markets, I
- 13:48Speaker 6: mean for the big banks that I cover, the capital
- 13:50Speaker 6: markets momentum has really been the we talked about trading
- 13:53Speaker 6: banking fees. We didn't talk about wealth and asset management.
- 13:56Speaker 6: Right Again, businesses that are helped by high asset values
- 14:00Speaker 6: flows really strong at these companies. So the you know,
- 14:04Speaker 6: the regional banks of the world, they really are focused
- 14:07Speaker 6: on that, you know, the net interest income and the
- 14:09Speaker 6: credit so that that solid credit is helpful for them,
- 14:13Speaker 6: and the net interest environment and that interesting income environment
- 14:18Speaker 6: should be helpful to them. But you know, they're not
- 14:22Speaker 6: as strong in products like credit cards, so JP Morgan
- 14:25Speaker 6: City Group back America even whilst vargo growing in that business, right,
- 14:29Speaker 6: so they their net interest margin is benefiting from that
- 14:33Speaker 6: loan growth. That's the area where we've seen loan growth.
- 14:36Speaker 6: Commercial loan growth is something that we expect is improving.
- 14:40Speaker 6: We're getting the benefit to credit of the lower rates,
- 14:44Speaker 6: right because in commercial real estate they can refinance, et cetera.
- 14:49Speaker 6: But but yeah, not seeing that blowout those blowout numbers
- 14:52Speaker 6: like we're seeing the last thing, you know, you brought
- 14:55Speaker 6: up the election you know, the left regulation that's Keith
- 15:02Speaker 6: positive and again that's more skewed to these big bangs,
- 15:05Speaker 6: right that had bigger Capital Worlds coming twenty billion buy
- 15:09Speaker 6: back announced by City Group investors really getting more focused
- 15:13Speaker 6: on that part of the story as well.
- 15:14Speaker 2: Green, she said it green, and it kind of goes
- 15:16Speaker 2: all around that, all right, Alison, thanks a lot. Alison
- 15:19Speaker 2: Williams of Bloomberg Intelligence. She covers you wes banks and
- 15:22Speaker 2: asset managers for us. She covers all that good stuff.
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